I'm a big fan of the "Buddy Tale". Woody and Buzz, Riggs and Murtaugh, Frodo and Smeagol
I liked this one for the most part. As Dave suspected, I was left scratching my head about the fantasy element, but he covered my concerns, or glossed them over well enough, in the outro. It had allusions to dragons, knights, and witches... good 'nuff.
Like Flintknapper, I was reminded of Resnik's "Soulmates" which ran on Escape Pod last year. I enjoy tales of friendship between humans and robots or AI, and I thought this one did a good job with the trope.
The thing I both loved and despised was the ending point. We knew, of course, as soon as the boy hid Beeman's body that he would find/trade for/purchase a new power supply and go back, and I was not disappointed in this. (Though I was surprised van Eekhout went for the, "Look what I found!" approach rather than making the boy purchase or steal one from a shop. The chances of finding a functional power supply in a trash heap nearly pushed me past my suspension of disbelief.) What I loved is that the boy didn't find Paradise and then go back for Beeman. He found the beach, but, like the rest of the world, it was literally a dump. But he also saw the gleaming city in the ocean and we're left with the
hope that it will end up being the paradise they're looking for. Of course, he has to go get Beeman first... the end.
This is also what I hated about this story because it felt like it ended in the middle of the tale. Did he find Beeman undisturbed? Or did the witches find him first? Did the power cell actually work? And did they eventually make it out to the floating city, and what trouble did they run into trying to cross the water? I get the idea of leaving your readers wanting more, and I absolutely do want more, but almost to the point that it became a let down. It's not that I want more about these characters in the future; I want more about them
now. I feel like I was denied the real end of the story. Like reaching the end of Halo 2, and the Master Chief is riding the forerunner ship back to Earth to stop the Covenant, and then it ends. And we all went... "Wait, what?! That's it?"
In all, I did enjoy the story. I just wish it had been completed.